Don’t blink or you might miss it.

While much of our attention, and that of Congress, is appropriately focused on hurricane recovery, the United States Senate this week is quietly taking up the National Defense Authorization Act that will set the Pentagon’s budget and programs for next year.

There are some major issues in play, and those of us who are concerned about spending, foreign military interventions, surveillance, and transgender rights need to be paying attention.

A unique bipartisan coalition led by US Reps.

In my experience speaking to Europeans and Canadians about our political system, they frequently demonstrate a lot of worry for us. Gone are the days of the usual cross-Atlantic holier-than-thou quipping and sniping. They’re just plain worried for us -- and, by extension, them.

It has been nearly a year of non-stop effort from Republicans to repeal or reform the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). In response, the Democrats have sought to maintain gridlock on the issue.

As exhaustive as this battle has been, few have heard anything about the connection between the ACA and Social Security. Fewer still realize that the repeal of President Obama’s signature legislation might well trigger a crisis in FDR’s signature program.

Crazy times in America these days.  The wrathful hurricanes pounding the South and the East Coast and the wildfires devouring the Northwest echo our storm-tossed politics.

Everything is turned upside down, everything is fevered, everything is being washed away. And yet (and this is the craziest thing of all) nothing seems to change.

Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan once observed, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. True that. If you’re an independent, you can lick your finger tip, put it in the air, and feel the winds beginning to shift.

Marijuana has a new BFF in the City of San Diego.

The City Council voted 6-3 to legalize cultivation and manufacturing when new state laws take effect in January.

That means America's Finest City now has a legally regulated marijuana industry including:

Once again our nation watches riveted as hurricanes and floods threaten our towns and cities, our coastlines and water supplies.

Emergency management at every level of government learned from the pain of Hurricane Katrina that planning and pre-locating supplies and vehicles saves lives.

Technology improvements allow for better communication among the different agencies and volunteers that respond to disasters.

Daniel Norland joins host, T.J. O’Hara, on this week’s episode. Dan is best known locally as a history teacher at a San Diego school, and nationally as the editor of Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo, the story of two Algerians detained for seven years at Guantanamo, who wished to tell their story to America. The two discuss the complex issue of human rights versus terrorism, and more.

Americans are facing a new public health crisis. According to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, an astounding one in eight Americans are currently struggling with alcohol addiction.

Criminal justice in the United States has a long and controversial history and continues to be one of the most contentious topics of our time.